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REPORTS--#21 THROUGH #40


Saturday, January 13, 2007

Rockets 90, Nuggets 86, but Help is on the Way

With the exceptions of Allen Iverson and Marcus Camby, the Nuggets played poorly and without a decent game plan tonight, losing to the Rockets 90-86, despite the Rockets shooting just .427 from the field. True, the Rockets play tight defense, but when you are playing two players (Blake and Diawara) who take alot more 3-point shots than regular shots, and another player (J.R. Smith) who takes almost as many 3-point shots as regular shots, how good on defense do you have to be?

The Nuggets made 9 of 28 3's, but made just 23 of 64 2's. Not counting A.I., the Nuggets managed just 14 of 45 2-point shots. The Nuggets other then Iverson missed 31 of 45 2-point shots! Not good.

Trades, suspensions, and injuries have made the Nuggets an ever changing team where there are no established patterns of moving and scoring the ball. The extreme lineup turmoil has not only destroyed the fast style of play that the Nuggets wanted to emphasize, but has in fact damaged the team's ability to play any kind of coherent basketball. It is sad to see a team that was averaging close to 110 points a game in mid December now frequently scoring in the 80's. And I have a simple question to the Denver front office: given that you were bent on trading Boykins, couldn't you at least have waited until the Melo suspension was over 10 days from now? That tactical error made the home crowd and Nuggets fans miserable tonight and probably cost the team one win already.

All home games are very important, and good and great teams are supposed to win most of their home games. But the Nuggets have squandered 4th quarter leads in 3 home games, and the suspensions have led to 2 or 3 additional losses, so that the team is now just 10-10 at home, which is the kind of home record that a lottery team might have. Most of the excitement surrounding the Nuggets explosive scoring lineup has left the arena now.

With J.R. "off the reservation" again like he was at the beginning of the season, in the catch 22 of needing alot of playing time to play well but not getting playing time because he is not playing well, the Nuggets have essentially been reduced to 3 superstars (Melo, A.I., & Camby) and a whole lot of roll of the dice players, where the dice are right now clearly loaded against the Nuggets. The current state of the team is clearly not going to be enough to get to the Western Conference Championship this year, let alone the NBA Championship.

When Melo returns, he, A.I., and Camby must help the coaching staff teach and inspire the other Nuggets who are all falling short of what is needed. George Karl has to avoid the mistake of overly restricting J.R.'s playing time, and also that of Reggie Evans. And most importantly, the revamped Nuggets must get on the same page with respect to the overall game plan strategies they will use to win, and with respect to the tactics during games that can be used to win.

Melo thought it would disrupt the team if he appealed the 15 game suspension, to try to get it reduced to 10 or 12 games. I think he sees now that the team is more disrupted by his not playing than it could possibly have been disrupted by anything else.

Has Carmelo Anthony become a wiser young pro basketball player from this ordeal: the asinine brawl in New York, his punch, his incorrect decision to not pursue an appeal, and now the dismantling of his team's ability to play coherent basketball due to the suspensions, trades, and injuries? Of course, but the cost has been huge to the team and at least a small threat to the young star's game for the remainder of this season. We now know that if Melo does not play at a superstar level, this team is going to be lucky to win half its games. This experience of watching the Nuggets play so badly on his big screen has probably been almost as miserable to Melo as playing hard in but losing a close playoff series 4 games to 3. Melo has psychologically aged 18 months or 2 years in a month.

When bad things like this happen, all great sports players dig in and resolve to try as hard as they can to play even better the next time. The best basketball players, unlike more average ones, don't risk playing worse by trying to play even better. Melo is now being tested and challenged by real basketball adversity, the kind he has never seen before, and it is up to him to coordinate with A.I., Camby, and his coaches to rescue his team from a total disaster for the season as a whole. Because the Nuggets are not going to automatically win in the state they are in even when Melo returns.

Although he grew up in a low income and high crime area of Baltimore, he has largely led a charmed life since getting out of there. He must remain as loyal to his team as he has always been, and he must take all the time necessary to inspire and teach everyone on the Nuggets he can get to. And he must try to expand his own game, such as in 3-point shooting.

The plus side of this season gone haywire is that if Melo will think in this way, and do these things, then he can achieve a real understanding of what it takes for a professional basketball team to win, which will be a priceless thing. He will have arrived several years earlier than most stars do at the powerful connections between playing as a superstar, being an ultimate team player, and knowing how to get his team to play better. There is no way to teach this. Melo either perceives, understands, and acts, or he does not. If he perceives how these three things connect together, and how to use one or two of these things to achieve the other, then and only then can the Nuggets compete with the powerhouses of the League. Then and only then will it actually be possible for the Nuggets to win a Championship.

In tonight's game, of the 9 Nuggets who played, only two picked and made shots well enough to be considered veteran pro players: Iverson and the new acquisition Steve Blake (PG). Camby was once again a rebounding and defensive star, and he was battling an illness, so I don't care that he was a shot or two short. The other 6 Nuggets picked shots poorly and couldn't make enough of the shots they took. pure and simple.

For some unknown reason, Reggie Evans played just 8 minutes, and was 2/2 from the field for 4 points, and he had 2 rebounds. Najera played 21 minutes, and was 1/7 for 2 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Nene played just 17 minutes, due to the threat posed by his knee, and he was 2/8, 0/1 on 3's, and 4/7 from the line for 8 points, and he added 7 rebounds and 2 steals.

Diawara (37 minutes) was 5/14, and 3/12 on 3's, for 13 points, and he had 2 assists and 2 blocks. Kleiza played 25 minutes, and he was 0/5, and 0/1 from beyond the 3-point arc, for 0 points, and he had 5 rebounds.

Marcus Camby, who was slightly sick, held down the paint for 38 minutes and grabbed a massive 24 rebounds. He was 3/10 from the field, and 1/2 from the line, for 7 points. He had just one block in this game.

Blake, the new PG backup, played 28 minutes and was a respectable 5/8, and 3/5 on 3's, for 13 points, and he added 6 assists and 4 rebounds.

George Karl pulled a mini Byron Scott on J.R. Smith and limited him to 19 minutes, during which time, though, Smith did not pick his shots well. Well, maybe Smith knew his minutes were going to be limited and that's why he rushed all those shots. Smith, who was one of the biggest surprises of the season at the time he was neck tackled in the Big Apple, was just 4/17, 2/7 on 3's, and 1/1 from the line for 11 points, and he had 1 rebound, 1 assist, and 1 block.

Allen Iverson must be wondering whether his basketball career is ever going to change, or whether it is a Law of the Universe that Iverson must play many games where he is the only one on his team playing at the star level offensively. The Nuggets have actually been playing at least slightly worse than the Sixers since the trade and the Nuggets (17-17) are no longer a winning team, which was the main point of his coming to the team. Yet Iverson himself is actually playing more and more solidly with each passing game, an is an island of stability in a sea of turmoil and lousy games by teammates.

A.I. was 10/21, 1/2 on 3's and 7/7 from the line, for 28 points. Hang on Bubba Chuck, help is on the way and will arrive January 22.

The next game is Sunday Jan. 14 in Portland to play the Trailblazers at 7 pm mountain time.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A.I. Huge, J.R. Back, Still No Melo, Spurs 92 Nuggets 83

Allen Iverson did practically everything possible to put the Nuggets in a positon to steal a suspension victory, but the Spurs had other plans. J.R. Smith returned from a whopping 10-game suspension and played a reasonably good game, but he could not hit on any of 4 extremely critical 3-point shots, and the Nuggets, playing with very little scoring potential in the front court, fell to the disciplined, well-coached, and extremely experienced Spurs 92-83.

The Spurs, who have the aged but still great veterans Duncan and Horry at power forward, were at least a little unsettled in the first half by the explosive and talented guards the Nuggets fielded, and the score at the half was 49-48 Nuggets. But all well-coached veteran teams make halftime adjustments. At the half, the Spurs decided to beat the Nuggets inside rather then attempt to bury them with 3-point shots or to start collapsing on Iverson all the time.

Tim Duncan was repeatedly fouled, but at 3/10 from the stripe, made Shaq look like an expert free throw shooter. But as usual, he chose his shots well and finished with 19 points on 8/15 shooting. Tony Parker (PG) had 26 points on expert 12/21 shooting, and he added 7 rebounds. Ginobili (SG) added 16 and Bowen (SF) added 11 on 5/6 expert shooting. No one had a huge night for the Spurs, who simply executed extremely well and ground out a win against a team basically trying to play without fully professional forwards.

The Spurs came in as the anti-Nuggets: healthy, unsuspended, very experienced, and able to play disciplined ball with few mistakes. None of their aged but still reliable veterans had to do anything flashy to win this one. They all but completely shut down the Denver front court, even keeping Camby's scoring to a single digit, and then waited to see if a team depending almost exclusively on guards could beat their veteran, well-managed basketball powerhouse that has BOTH quality guards and quality forwards. The Nugget's guards played outstandingly well (Iverson), very well (Boykins) and all right (Smith), but as the Spurs calculated, it was not enough for the Nuggets to have a chance.

The Spurs nickled and dimed the Nuggets to death with better execution. They led in rebounding 46-41, led in assists 23-15, led in steals 11-5, led in blocks 9-2, and had just 10 turnovers versus 17 for the Nuggets. To say that the Spurs executed the fundamentals of basketball better than the Nuggets would be an understatement.

And the fact that the Nuggets were technically in the game until late in the 4th quarter was due to the outstanding game that Allen Iverson played. Considering the oponent, this was Iverson's best game since becoming a Nugget.

If someone had been living on the moon for the past 6 months and had just returned to Earth to watch this game, he would have said something like "Boy, that team needs a forward something fierce". Well Mr. Man on the Moon, we have a superstar forward but there is this League kingpin who had a temper tantrum over a minor altercation in Manhattan and dictated that our star forward, our only forward who can light up the scoreboard enough so we can compete with the Big 6 of the Western Conference, sit out for 15 games. That's right, Mr. Moon, he can not play for 15 games because of a stupid altercation. (Are there any intelligent altercations?).

Nene was limited to 15 minutes again because of the knee, and he was 1/5 for 2 points, and he added 4 rebounds and a block. Kleiza played 18 minutes and he was just 1/4 and 0/2 on 3/s for 2 points, and he had 3 rebounds. Najera played 24 minutes, and he was 1/4 and 1/2 from the line for 3 points, and he had 1 rebound, 2 assists, and a steal. And finally, Reggie Evans played just 13 minutes, and he was 1/2, and 2/2 from the line, for 4 points, and he had 5 rebounds. Note that Evans outrebounded Najera 5-1 even though he played little more than half the minutes Najera did.

So all of the Nuggets forwards combined played 70 minutes, or 2 full games for a typical PF, and they had 11 points. Ouch!. This team desperately needs a forward! The front office must be filled with idiots. Oh, that's right, they have that guy who leads the whole League in scoring but was thrown out of the League for 1/5 of the season, my bad. The Denver front office is all right after all.

Camby was hounded and stuffed close to and in the paint all night, and he had just 9 points on 3/9 shooting (3/5 from the line). He had to fight hard for his huge 16 rebounds, and he added 2 assists, a steal, and a block.

J.R. Smith got a loud standing ovation when he was put in half way through the 1st. When he was suspended, he was making critical progress with his game, especially strong to the hoop charges and 3-point shots. He tried to take up where he left off, but the long sit-down and harrassment from the Spurs prevented a big night for him. Smith didn't get many calls despite being repeatedly hammered in the lane. J.R.'s return was for 32 minutes, and he was 5/13, 0/4 on 3's, and 2/3 from the line for 12 points. But he added 4 rebounds, 2 assists, and 2 steals.

J.R. was benched to some extent last year, his second year, in Oklahoma, so he has successfully been through this process of ramping up to full scale starter before, so he will do it again. I am sure he will be gradually burying more and more 3's and polishing his finishes at the hoop in the weeks ahead

Boykins has been so consistent during the 3 1/2 weeks of the suspensions that I am beginning to wonder if he is actually a machine. Maybe he is Mr. Basketball, from the same mold as the Mr. Data of the starship Enterprise. He was 8/14, and 2/3 from the line, for 18 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a steal.

Iverson had a fantastic game, choosing an almost perfect mix of drives to the hoop and mostly shorter jumpers. It was the kind of game that proves Iverson's determination and ability to play both smart and well, and to complement the rest of the team as well as possible by understanding the abilities and roles of the other players. A.I. gave the Nuggets more than enough to beat the powerhouse under normal circumstances, but it was not possible for him to make up for the massive problems with the forwards. A.I. played a huge 44 minutes, and he was 15/25, and 3/3 from the line, for 33 points, and he added 6 assists even though very few Nuggets were hitting.

The next game will be Friday Jan 12 in Denver against the Rockets at 8:30 mountain time.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Camby is Huge in Nuggets Win Over Bucks 104-92

Unlike in real life, where the effects of problems and misfortunes can drag on for months or even years, in sports things can turn around quickly. Every new game is a complete fresh start, and all the mistakes made in all prior games have no bearing on the new game. The Nuggets took full advantage of this fact tonight, and made a kind of fresh start, which was very refreshing to the home crowd and to Nuggets fans everywhere.

The Nuggets calmed their worried sick fans down with a well-managed and intelligent win against the Bucks, 104-92. With J.R. Smith returning next game, the suspensions don't seem as damaging and dangerous as they did before the tip of this one. It's time to breathe one huge sigh of relief, not only because of the win itself, but because almost every Nugget who played had a solid game or better. It seems the Nuggets finally know how to play with A.I. and without J.R.-Melo just when, you guessed it, they're coming back. I can imagine worse problems, though, than bringing J.R. and Melo back into the mix.

The Nugget's attack was the most balanced one since the December 26 home win against the Celtics; the front court defense was much improved from the 5-game losing streak now ended. Kleiza and Reggie Evans backed up the defensive superstar Marcus Camby not only on the boards, but also on the scoreboard as well. Kleiza hit three key 3's, and Evans climbed out of a scoring slump so deep that you have to wonder whether the man was reborn sometime in the last 48 hours. Or maybe George Karl had a one on one drill with Reggie, daring him to miss layups and short jumpers against a bald 55 year old man.

The result of this reawakening of the front court was that Iverson was not double teamed all that much and he and Iverson #2 (Boykins) had alot more space to deliver the goods. And Marcus Camby, who irritated his finger fracture against the Lakers and had to sit out the Jazz game, returned in great form, holding down the paint and reviving his scoring touch just in time before Nuggets fans started to pull their hair out.

The Bucks were without their scoring leader, swingman Michael Redd, who at almost 28 points per game is currently the 5th top scorer in the NBA. Redd is nursing a strained patellar tendon in his left knee and will be sidelined four to six weeks. Milwaukee was also without forward Charlie Villanueva, who missed his third game with tendinitis in his right shoulder. Villanueva is having a decent year, at 13 ppg and 6 rpg. And during this game, starting PG Mo Williams went out when he sprained his left shoulder just before halftime when he collided with Linas Kleiza near midcourt while going for the ball.

Ruben Patterson responded to the injuries and to poor shooting by the other Bucks by doubling his average scoring; he had 29 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists, and 4 steals. The Bucks needed just one other starter to hit some shots but they could not find one. Even though rebounding was 52-47 Nuggets, and even though the Nuggets lost the turnover contest by a relatively small margin, 16-10, the Bucks took 96 shots versus 79 for the Nuggets. So it is fair to say that there was definitely some real defense being played by players other than Camby.

Kleiza made good use of his 27 minutes and was 4/8, and 3/5 from 3-point land, for 11 points, and he had 9 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal. Najera played just 9 minutes and had 3 points, 2 rebounds, and a steal. Najera bruised his left shoulder in the first half and didn't return.

Nene can't play more than about 15 minutes due to the knee, and he was 0/2, and 7/10 from the line for 7 points, and he had 4 rebounds, 2 steals, and a block.

Good things can happen when Evans gets more minutes than Najera. In 27 minutes, Reggie Evans was 4/5, and 5/7 from the line for 13 points, and he had 11 rebounds and 2 assists. Now we Nuggets fans can hope and maybe even expect that Evans will for the most part avoid the goose egg games from the field and from the line. If he can just hit 1/3 of his shots, and 60% of his free throws, then he is worth his weight in gold on the boards, and his defense is gradually improving.

Diawara had another poor outing. In 23 minutes, he was 0/5, 0/3 on 3's, and he had 3 rebounds and 1 assist. There is something eating at this guy.

Why have just one Iverson type player when you can have two? Iverson #2, Boykins, kept his perfect string of nice games as a starter alive. He was 8/20, 2/5 on 3's, and a perfect 8/8 from the line for 26 points, and he expertly added 11 assists, 4 rebounds, and 1 steal. Whoever brought Boykins to Denver is a genius.

A.I., who wisely counseled the Nuggets to not start pointing fingers at each other in the wake of the losing streak, and who stressed the need to play as a team to arise out of a slump, made sure his actions matched his philosophy. He was 9/21, 2/4 on 3's, and 3/4 from the line for 23 points, and he had 3 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals. Aware of the consistently strong play of Boykins, A.I. wisely picked his shots and avoided unnecessary dramatics.

I've always found it kind of funny that some people think that A.I. is dumb, because of media-hyped "incidents" he has supposedly been responsible for over the years, according to the hype. In actuality, his philosophy is logically tight. Consider A.I. on the slump:



That was tough to lose five in a row, but I kind of learned a lot about this team, just going through some adversity with them early instead of everything being peaches and cream.

"The morale around the team wasn't great but it wasn't negative," Iverson said. "It wasn't to the point where everybody was pointing fingers at each other and blaming each other."

George Karl can check with A.I. regarding the morale and confidence of the team, and he is sure to get an expert report.

Marcus Camby put together a brilliant game and clearly should be given the most valuable player award for this game, though Boykins and A.I. would get alot of votes as well. Camby was 8/15, and 3/5 from the line, for 19 points. Camby also had 15 rebounds, 3 assists, and 7 blocks. There is only one player (Jermaine O'Neill) who gets more blocks per game than Marcus Camby.

If Camby consistently plays like this, then the Nuggets are definitely going to be competitive with the big 6 teams of the Conference this year.

The next game is the J.R. Smith return game, on Wed. Jan 12 at 7 pm mountain time, in Denver against the Spurs.

Sunday, January 7, 2007

Nuggets Sink in Suspension Muck, Lose to Utah 96-84

Just when Nuggets fans and coaches thought that the miseries of the marathon suspensions couldn't get any worse, they did. The Nuggets failed to play a fully professional basketball game at home against their divisional archrival, the Utah Jazz. The Nuggets, confused by yet another new cast of starters, and playing with several players who had very little playing time until recently, had 5 turnovers in the first 3 1/2 minutes. George Karl had to call a very early timeout with the score 9-0 Jazz, and it was 12-0 before the Nuggets scored. The Nuggets ended up with 9 1st quarter turnovers, though they kept the total turnover count for the game to 18.

The Jazz first attempted to follow the Laker's storm the paint and go back out for undefended threes approach, seeking to bury the Nuggets with 3's and dunks. The Jazz led 27-16 at the end of the first quarter. However, Jazz accuracy from 3-point land was never up to last night's Laker rampage from downtown.

And then it got worse for the Jazz, as the second and third quarters progressed, and as they departed from their starting strategy and started to shoot mid-range jumpers. Utah's offense became less fluid, and there were lots of turnovers. The Jazz shooting percentage kept going down like the temperature on a winter night, until for a brief few seconds late in the 3rd quarter it dropped below .400 and also below the sorry accuracy the Nuggets were at. Harpring in the second quarter missed a bunch of shots, and Okur in the third quarter missed makeable shots and had several turnovers.

I was beginning to think that Utah might be humiliated by the crippled Nuggets. After A.I. sunk a 3 with 10 1/2 minutes to play, and Jamal Sampson dunked with 9 1/2 minutes to play, the Jazz lead was reduced to just 68-67. I could not believe what was happening.

But the Jazz finally did come up with a way to put the dagger in the back of the hapless Nuggets. Jerry Sloan's temper and blood pressure started to go through the roof with just the idea that the Jazz might lose to the pathetic Nuggets, who played more like a ragtag group of neighborhood misfits than a professional basketball team in the 1st half. Sloan told his top guy, CF Carlos Boozer, to put him, the Jazz, the Nuggets, and the fans out of their misery and finally end the poor excuse for a basketball game. Boozer proceeded to repeatedly drive to the hoop for easy layups, scoring 14 points in the quarter on 6/7 shooting, with two free throws as bonuses. Sloan's health was preserved, and the Utah lead over the Nuggets in the Northwest divison grew to a huge 6.5 games.

There are 6 teams in the League right now reporting no injuries, and Utah is one of them. That, and the fact that Utah picked up Carlos Boozer from Cleveland for next to nothing, are the top two reasons for the Jazz' surprising start this season. If you combine suspensions to J.R. Smith and Melo, with the injuries to Camby and Kenyon Martin, the Nuggets have to be the most devastated team taking the floor these days. With Camby and Melo out, the Nuggets are left with both very little scoring and very little defense in the front court. On paper, there are very few teams that the current Nuggets can beat; the loss of Camby is the last straw.

I have been thinking that Iverson might "take over" a few of the suspension games, and put up 30+ shots, but now I am understanding that, first, the Nugget's second teamers are not thinking enough of dishing to A.I., and second, opponents are simply smothering A.I. with double and even triple teams.

Among the forwards, it was Kleiza's turn to hit a few shots. Kleiza in 34 minutes was 5/9, 1/3 on 3's, and 6/8 from the line fir 17 points. Najera in 30 minutes was 4/7, 0/1 on 3's, and 1/2 from the line for 9 points, and he had 9 rebounds.

Nene started, but was yanked after playing just 18 minutes, probably due to the knee acting up again. He was 2/9, for 4 points, and he had 7 rebounds and 4 blocks.

Reggie Evans, whose inability to score has been almost as much a pain in the neck problem as Nene's knee or Camby's metacarpal, played 27 minutes and was 1/1, and 0/4 from the line for 2 points, but he did have 11 rebounds and 3 steals. Jamal Sampson, who had virtually no playing time until the suspensions and the Camby injury, played 15 minutes. He was 2/2, and 1/2 from the line, for 5 points, and he had 4 rebounds and 1 block.

Diawara has confounded George Karl's hopes by his totally inconsistent play, and has forced him to give alot more playing time to unknowns such as Sampson and Hodge. In his 23 minutes, Diawara was only 1/9, and 1/7 on 3's for 3 points, and he had 3 rebounds and 1 assist.

Iverson was able to get his 8 assists on a squad that shot just .387. Smothered most of the night by double and even triple teams, he was 3 or 4 made shots short of his career average. Iverson was just 5/19, 1/7 on 3's, and 11/12 from the line for 22 points, and he had 5 rebounds and 2 steals to go with the 8 assists.

Boykins was essentially the only Nugget who had any scoring consistency. He is certainly playing well enough to be a starter on a team that needs a veteran point guard. He was 9/19, 2/8 on threes, and 2/3 from the line for 22 points, and he had 3 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. Once again, he prevented the score from becoming a 25-35 point rout.

With six more Melo suspension games still to come, and with Camby's metacarpal injury causing more huge problems, and with the Wolves, the Warriors, and the Kings now caught up with the Nuggets, it is becoming more and more likely that the Nuggets will be in an all out dogfight with those three teams for at least several weeks after Melo and J.R. return. Playoff berths are available for only two of the four.

After reaching 16-10 overall and 3-1 in suspension games two weeks ago, the Nuggets have lost 5 straight, and are now 16-15, and 3-6 in suspension games. Their most probable record had there been no suspensions is 6-3, so they have now probably lost a net 3 games due to the suspensions.

The next game is Monday Jan. 8 in Denver against the Bucks at 7 pm mountain time. The Bucks are healthy and unsuspended, so look out, though I think we've reached the point where things can't possibly get any worse.

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HOME PAGE A: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE B: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES
HOME PAGE C: ALL REPORTS, READERS CONTAINING REPORTS 1-100, AND UNIQUE FEATURES

>>REPORT READERS: Complete freedom to rapidly choose and read what you need or want to read. The latest 40 Reports are found near the top of all three of the primary home pages (linked to just above) while Reports #41-#100 are found in three separate readers placed at various points down the page on all three primary home pages.

>>EXPRESS VERSION: Every Single Report but no Features: a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>FAST BREAK VERSION: The Latest 100 Reports via Report Readers Only; no Features, a Fast Loading Page: Click Here

>>QUEST ARCHIVE HOME PAGES--REPORT ARCHIVES AND A SMALL NUMBER OF CLASSIC FEATURES THAT WON'T FIT ON OTHER HOME PAGES
QUEST 4: REPORTS 101-200
QUEST 5: REPORTS 201-300
QUEST 6: REPORTS 301-400
QUEST 7: REPORTS 401-500
QUEST 8: REPORTS 501-600
QUEST 9: REPORTS 601-700
QUEST 10: REPORTS 701-800

>>FEATURES ONLY HOME PAGES: NO REPORTS, JUST FEATURES THAT WE CAN'T FIT ANYWHERE ELSE
QUEST OVERTIME
QUEST CLASSIC

>>COMPLETE TITLE INDEX: : A Complete Report Title Index, with Express Version Links to all Reports

>>LATEST 25 Reports: Direct links to the latest 25 Reports (with no truncated titles as you find with the poorly designed Google archive). This is located near the very bottom of this page.

>>GOOGLE ARCHIVE you will find this, with Reports shown by week not very far below.

>>I'M NEW AND I DON'T KNOW WHERE I WANT TO GO: Welcome to the Real Zone. Simply browse the page and see for yourself what is here. You will not be disappointed.

>>OR YOU CAN DO A CUSTOM GOOGLE SEARCH OF THE 13 BOOKS AND COUNTING CONTAINED ON THIS SITE>>>>>

SEARCH THE QUEST FOR THE RING--THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN 15 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT HOW LONG QUEST FOR THE RING HAS BEEN KEEPING IT REAL

The above shows you in two different ways the exact amount of time since The Quest for the Ring began to completely explain how the Quest is won, while having as much fun as possible at the expense of basketball pretenders and player haters. The first panel shows how long it has been in each of seven units. The second panel shows how long it has been in the more usual "remainder" way.

QUEST FOR THE RING SOMETIMES GOES INTO HIATUS
Regardless of any temporary unavoidable absences, the Quest is in this project to explain in detail for the very long term--indefinitely, for many, many, many years ahead. At this writing we have the equivalent of 15 basketball books under our belt and we plan on doing dozens more. Count on us being right where basketball is at, which is here, actually.

Blog Archive


QUEST REPORTS #41 TO #60, GOING BACK IN TIME


QUEST IS FREE BUT ABOUT 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME CAN GET YOU MORE OF IT

Although there is a guaranteed minimum rate of Report production regardless of traffic, it is in your power to help increase the number of and frequency of Quest Reports. All Quest sites are developed and produced according to both superseding criteria and site traffic. Like all sites started in recent years, Quest receives very little help from Google and other search engines. The search engines mostly serve to keep the older, popular sites popular; they preserve the same old, same old status quo.

The amount of reporting and the frequency of Quest Reports could easily be double what it is were site traffic higher. If Quest obtained the traffic we know it deserves, than production would go from the equivalent of roughly three books about basketball a year to at least five and to as many as six books a year!

WE NEED A GRAND TOTAL OF ABOUT 3 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME
Please take three or four minutes every now and then to recommend Quest and post links to Quest on your favorite sports and other sites. In other words, wherever possible use us to back up what you are posting and writing. The resulting automatic increase of traffic will in turn increase the resources that go in to producing Quest home page Reports. After helping us, feel free to e-mail how you helped and we will throw some Internet love back to your Internet hangout. The email address is thequestforthering1. This is a gmail address, so you use @gmail.com after that address.

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE

QUEST FOR THE RING USER GUIDE: YOU CAN QUICKLY LOCATE AND GET THE SITE INFORMATION YOU NEED OR WANT RIGHT HERE

LATEST 25 REPORTS THREE AT A TIME -- TO LOAD THE NEXT THREE, CLICK ">" AT THE TOP ON THE RIGHT



QUEST REPORTS #61 TO #80, GOING BACK IN TIME


WORD IS BOND

WELCOME TO THE QUEST--THINGS ARE VERY DIFFERENT HERE

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING, ALSO KNOWN AS THE REAL ZONE
This is one of the most serious basketball sites on the internet, focusing on how and why playoff games and NBA Championships are won. We also love to take comedy and music breaks, but not every day.

WELCOME TO THE QUEST FOR THE RING. YOU HAVE LEFT THE HYPE ZONE AND HAVE ARRIVED IN THE REAL ZONE. Please check any rose colored glasses at the door. The Hype Zone is where you can find out about the personalities and the styles and how popular they are and what they are up to lately. The Real Zone is where we DO NOT think personalities and styles and how popular or unpopular they are things to waste time on just for ratings or traffic.

Instead of hype, here we post as much truth about how NBA playoff games and Championships are won as we can 365 days a year and at at any hour of the day or night. Please have a productive visit, and a nice trip back to the Hype Zone when your visit is over.


A SMALL SAMPLE OF CURRENT AND SOON TO COME QUEST FOR THE RING REAL ZONE TOPICS
--How and Why the 2010 Los Angeles Lakers, the 2010 Cleveland Cavaliers, and the 2010 Boston Celtics Win or Lose in the 2010 Playoffs
--The right "amount of" LeBron James
--How players we know deserve to win a first or second Ring can get one, highly talented players such as Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Rajon Rondo, and Dwyane Wade.
--How and why the Denver Nuggets Franchise has repeatedly fooled the public, and possibly themselves for that matter. (No, we still have not completely finished with the Nuggets, thanks to how successful they were in 2008-09, albeit there was no chance of a Championship; Continuing, much done already)
--How and why much of what you may think you know about Allen Iverson is dead wrong (Continuing, much done already)
--How and why the playoffs are something completely different from the regular season, and why your team may be simply not prepared for them despite a lot of regular season wins

A SMALL SAMPLE OF ALREADY COMPLETED QUEST FOR THE RING REAL ZONE TOPICS
--How and why Carmelo Anthony has been downsized due to a quest for "well-roundedness," and why this is really bad
--How and why the owner of the Nuggets shortchanged and cheated his team out of a possible Championship
--How and why being physical alone can not win you a Championship
--How and why the Nuggets' high fouling defense will take them only so far
--How and why George Karl is doing more harm than good with respect to J.R. Smith
--How and why George Karl's obsession with personalities is wrong and bad for any team
--How and why George Karl and the Nuggets can not win in the playoffs (2007, 2008) or a West final (2009). If Quest commits a foul, we own up to it, as we do right here: we thought the Nuggets could not win in the playoffs in 2009. They did win 10 games before being eliminated by the Lakers in the West final, so in response we corrected our evaluation of what you can do with the Nuggets' unique 2009 approach to basketball without, however, going overboard.
--How and why George Karl cheats the fans and the franchise out of performance and development of "reserve" players
--How and why playmaking is so important, probably more than you think, and how you manage playmakers correctly.
--How and why you have probably been fooled regarding the Nuggets' 2008 off-season and their 2008-09 defense

UNIQUE SITE DESIGN
The Quest is organized in a completely different way from what you are used to on the internet. We have combined the best features of the blog and the conventional web site formats, the latter being the norm for large organizations. However, since we do not like the idea of using flash to "wow" visitors, we do not use flash except within video and other discrete components. So we are state of the art in terms of expanding the power of visitors to get exactly what they want very quickly, but we do not have the latest flash gadgetry just to "keep up with the Joneses". More broadly, you will find that Quest for the Ring never seeks to keep up with the Joneses, simply because the Joneses never had the nerve and the intelligence to do what we do.

2009: A PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATION COMES TO QUEST
Just before the 2009-10 season tipped, the very large number of features and links to important resources were strategically reorganized and placed within an easy to use and clearly labelled section system. So ended the era of the rapidly developed, sprawling and slightly disorganized Quest, and so began the era of the big but under careful control and extremely well organized and professional Quest for the Ring.

The Quest Home Page consists of numerous types of content, organized carefully into the new sections as of November 2009. Features can be any educational and / or entertaining thing you can think of, including everything from music players to videos to photos to breaking NBA news readers to top teams performance breakdown pages.

Quest for the Ring has a world class link system for those who know what they are looking for and wish to find and engage the appropriate link, But the Quest visitor does not HAVE to hunt for links to have an intelligent and entertaining experience. The Quest home page is big enough and chock loaded enough that link hunting is not absolutely necessary the way it normally is at many other basketball sites.

THERE MUST BE TEN WAYS TO READ REPORTS [PAUL SIMON LOL]
There are close to ten ways to find out about, select, and read Quest Reports! The standard, traditional blog presentation is available as one of the many ways to choose, access, and read reports. On the Home Page, only one report loads in the traditional format in order to keep this page as quick loading as possible.
See the "Total Freedom of Navigation" section for complete details about how to find, choose, and read reports.

One key place to find Older Reports is on sequentially numbered url's thequestforthering2.blogspot.com, thequestforthering3.blogspot.com, and so forth.

THE QUEST USER GUIDE VERSUS an about page
Other sites most often have undeveloped and limited in scope "about pages" which is usually all they have for what we call a "User Guide". Our User Guide material is a vast improvement, quantitatively and qualitatively, over a mere "about page" While many other sites don't help their visitors to make the best use of the content, we do. Also, the User Guide is chock loaded with invitations to visitors to participate in all kinds of ways, including for example advertising for free, link exchange, and getting a team site supported by Quest.

SEARCH THE QUEST FOR THE RING, THE EQUIVALENT OF MORE THAN 15 BOOKS ABOUT BASKETBALL

Custom Search
SEARCH THE 15 BOOKS / 1.5 MILLION WORDS

QUEST REPORTS #81 TO #100 GOING BACK IN TIME

RECOMMENDED SCHOOL--CLICK FOR DETAILS


VIDEOS

QUEST FOR THE RING VIDEOS--The primary Quest video page with video juke boxes for all 30 teams

QUEST FOR THE RING VIDEOS #2--Specially chosen video juke boxes and individual videos

QUEST FOR THE RING PRIMARY HOME PAGE B--A few key video players are here

LATEST NBA.COM NBA VIDEOS
LATEST YAHOO SPORTS NBA / BASKETBALL VIDEOS
LATEST CBS SPORTSLINE NBA VIDEOS

MOST RECENT LEAGUE WIDE REAL PLAYER RATINGS

Note: This is generally a once a year, end of season Report. For many teams and players, more recent ratings are often available.

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

POSITION AND TEAM CODES
In the Real Player and related ratings shown for the League, two codes follow each players' name (and before his rating). The first code tells you the players' team and the second one tells you his position.

TEAM CODES
ATLA Atlanta Hawks
BOST Boston Celtics
CHAR Charlotte Bobcats
CHIC Chicago Bulls
CLEV Cleveland Cavaliers
DALL Dallas Mavericks
DENV Denver Nuggets
DETR Detroit Pistons
GOLS Golden State Warriors
HOUS Houston Rockets
INDI Indiana Pacers
LACL Los Angeles Clippers
LALK Los Angeles Lakers
MEMP Memphis Grizzlies
MIAM Miami Heat
MILW Milwaukee Bucks
MINN Minnesota Timberwolves
NJRS New Jersey Nets
NORL New Orleans Hornets
NWYR New York Knicks
OKLA Oklahoma Thunder
ORLA Orlando Magic
PHIL Philadelphia 76'ers
PHNX Phoenix Suns
PORT Portland Trailblazers
SACR Sacramento Kings
SANA San Antonio Spurs
TORO Toronto Raptors
UTAH Utah Jazz
WASH Washington Wizards

POSITION CODES
PG Point Guard
SG Shooting Guard
SF Small Forward
PF Power Forward
C Center

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.100 and more
Historic Super Star 1.000 1.099
Super Star 0.900 0.999
A Star Player / A well above normal starter 0.820 0.899
Very Good Player / A solid starter 0.760 0.819
Major Role Player / Good enough to start 0.700 0.759
Good Role Player / Often a good 6th man 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Preferably should not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Generally should not start 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player .399 and less

NBA REAL PLAYER RATINGS
2009-10 REGULAR SEASON

--Shows the real quality of players
--Includes all tracked actions and also includes untracked or hidden defending
--The average Real Player Rating for all players who play 300 minutes or more is about .700.
--All players who have played at least 300 minutes are included here and in all other ratings to follow in coming days

MAJOR HISTORIC SUPERSTARS
1 LeBron James CLEV SF 1.382
2 Tim Duncan SANA PF 1.254
3 Chris Paul NORL PG 1.202
4 Dwight Howard ORLA C 1.121
5 Andrew Bogut MILW C 1.112

HISTORIC SUPERSTARS
6 Steve Nash PHNX PG 1.095
7 Jason Kidd DALL PG 1.092
8 Rajon Rondo BOST PG 1.084
9 Deron Williams UTAH PG 1.076
10 Dwyane Wade MIAM SG 1.075
11 Marcus Camby LACL C 1.071
12 Pau Gasol LALK PF 1.065
13 Greg Oden PORT C 1.060
14 Kevin Durant OKLA SF 1.051
15 Dirk Nowitzki DALL PF 1.034
16 Josh Smith ATLA SF 1.033
17 Kevin Garnett BOST PF 1.033
18 Manu Ginobili SANA SG 1.023
19 Kobe Bryant LALK SG 1.005

SUPERSTARS
20 Carlos Boozer UTAH PF 0.994
21 Lamar Odom LALK PF 0.982
22 Andrei Kirilenko UTAH SF 0.976
23 Chris Bosh TORO PF 0.972
24 David Lee NWYR C 0.971
25 Al Horford ATLA C 0.970
26 Marcus Camby PORT C 0.967
27 Jameer Nelson ORLA PG 0.959
28 Joakim Noah CHIC C 0.955
29 John Salmons MILW SF 0.937
30 Andrew Bynum LALK C 0.936
31 Troy Murphy INDI PF 0.934
32 Kevin Love MINN PF 0.934
33 Anderson Varejao CLEV C 0.933
34 Brendan Haywood DALL C 0.929
35 Vince Carter ORLA SG 0.928
36 Gerald Wallace CHAR SF 0.918
37 Sergio Rodriguez SACR PG 0.908
38 Tyrus Thomas CHIC PF 0.904
39 Derrick Rose CHIC PG 0.903

STARS
40 Baron Davis LACL PG 0.899
41 Russell Westbrook OKLA PG 0.897
42 Zach Randolph MEMP PF 0.885
43 Danny Granger INDI SF 0.885
44 Marc Gasol MEMP C 0.885
45 Joe Johnson ATLA SG 0.883
46 Chauncey Billups DENV PG 0.883
47 Roy Hibbert INDI C 0.880
48 Ben Wallace DETR C 0.877
49 Andre Miller PORT PG 0.874
50 Carmelo Anthony DENV SF 0.874
51 Brandon Jennings MILW PG 0.870
52 Tyrus Thomas CHAR PF 0.870
53 A.J. Price INDI PG 0.868
54 Paul Millsap UTAH PF 0.866
55 Craig Smith LACL PF 0.865
56 Samuel Dalembert PHIL C 0.864
57 Andre Iguodala PHIL SG 0.858
58 Raymond Felton CHAR PG 0.857
59 Delonte West CLEV SG 0.856
60 Al Jefferson MINN C 0.856
61 Eric Maynor OKLA PG 0.856
62 Serge Ibaka OKLA PF 0.855
63 Nene Hilario DENV C 0.852
64 Chris Andersen DENV PF 0.849
65 Shaquille O'Neal CLEV C 0.842
66 Brandon Roy PORT SG 0.842
67 Ryan Anderson ORLA PF 0.840
68 Antonio McDyess SANA PF 0.839
69 Tony Parker SANA PG 0.837
70 Paul Pierce BOST SF 0.836
71 Mo Williams CLEV PG 0.835
72 Kyle Lowry HOUS PG 0.835
73 Ersan Ilyasova MILW SF 0.828
74 Amare Stoudemire PHNX PF 0.828
75 Luke Ridnour MILW PG 0.827
76 Erick Dampier DALL C 0.826
77 Tyreke Evans SACR PG 0.825
78 Andris Biedrins GOLS C 0.825
79 Kyle Korver UTAH SG 0.824
80 Anthony Randolph GOLS PF 0.820

VERY GOOD PLAYERS / SOLID STARTERS
81 Eric Maynor UTAH PG 0.819
82 Carlos Arroyo MIAM PG 0.819
83 Antawn Jamison CLEV PF 0.819
84 Nazr Mohammed CHAR C 0.818
85 Luol Deng CHIC SF 0.817
86 Dorell Wright MIAM SG 0.817
87 LaMarcus Aldridge PORT PF 0.817
88 Carl Landry HOUS PF 0.816
89 Luis Scola HOUS PF 0.816
90 Nick Collison OKLA PF 0.812
91 Carlos Delfino MILW SG 0.809
92 Kendrick Perkins BOST C 0.807
93 Jermaine O'Neal MIAM C 0.805
94 Nate Robinson NWYR PG 0.804
95 Goran Dragic PHNX PG 0.803
96 Mike Bibby ATLA PG 0.803
97 Stephen Curry GOLS PG 0.803
98 Mehmet Okur UTAH C 0.800
99 Jose Calderon TORO PG 0.797
100 Jason Terry DALL SG 0.791
101 Ronnie Price UTAH PG 0.784
102 DeJuan Blair SANA PF 0.784
103 Chris Kaman LACL C 0.783
104 Shaun Livingston WASH PG 0.783
105 Joel Przybilla PORT C 0.782
106 David West NORL PF 0.781
107 John Salmons CHIC SF 0.776
108 Matt Barnes ORLA SF 0.775
109 Darren Collison NORL PG 0.775
110 Ronny Turiaf GOLS C 0.774
111 Udonis Haslem MIAM PF 0.774
112 Shawn Marion DALL SF 0.772
113 Jason Williams ORLA PG 0.771
114 Keyon Dooling NJRS PG 0.771
115 Andray Blatche WASH C 0.770
116 James Harden OKLA SG 0.770
117 Brook Lopez NJRS C 0.770
118 Ray Allen BOST SG 0.770
119 Amir Johnson TORO SF 0.769
120 Ty Lawson DENV PG 0.768
121 Beno Udrih SACR PG 0.768
122 Chuck Hayes HOUS PF 0.765
123 Matt Bonner SANA PF 0.763
124 Reggie Evans TORO PF 0.763
125 Gilbert Arenas WASH PG 0.760

MAJOR ROLE PLAYERS / GOOD ENOUGH TO START
126 Zydrunas Ilgauskas CLEV C 0.758
127 Rasheed Wallace BOST PF 0.757
128 Lou Williams PHIL SG 0.756
129 Stephen Jackson CHAR SF 0.754
130 Dan Gadzuric MILW C 0.754
131 Jamario Moon CLEV SF 0.754
132 Ron Artest LALK SF 0.752
133 Rodney Stuckey DETR PG 0.749
134 Shelden Williams BOST PF 0.748
135 Oleksiy Pecherov MINN C 0.748
136 Aaron Brooks HOUS PG 0.747
137 Boris Diaw CHAR PF 0.746
138 C.J. Watson GOLS PG 0.746
139 Brendan Haywood WASH C 0.744
140 Emeka Okafor NORL C 0.742
141 Taj Gibson CHIC PF 0.741
142 J.R. Smith DENV SG 0.738
143 Mike Miller WASH SF 0.732
144 Channing Frye PHNX C 0.731
145 Louis Amundson PHNX PF 0.731
146 Elton Brand PHIL PF 0.726
147 D.J. Mbenga LALK C 0.725
148 Tayshaun Prince DETR SF 0.724
149 Francisco Garcia SACR SG 0.724
150 Tyler Hansbrough INDI PF 0.724
151 Trevor Ariza HOUS SG 0.723
152 Allen Iverson PHIL SG 0.722
153 Rashard Lewis ORLA PF 0.721
154 Richard Jefferson SANA SF 0.721
155 Luc Richard Mbah a Moute MILW SF 0.721
156 Jamal Crawford ATLA SG 0.721
157 Brad Miller CHIC C 0.720
158 Josh Boone NJRS C 0.718
159 Jason Richardson PHNX SG 0.718
160 Sebastian Telfair LACL PG 0.717
161 Marvin Williams ATLA PF 0.716
162 David Andersen HOUS C 0.715
163 Caron Butler DALL SF 0.715
164 Michael Beasley MIAM PF 0.714
165 George Hill SANA PG 0.713
166 Ronnie Brewer UTAH SG 0.712
167 D.J. Augustin CHAR PG 0.712
168 Monta Ellis GOLS PG 0.711
169 Sean May SACR PF 0.710
170 Anthony Tolliver GOLS PF 0.709
171 Kenyon Martin DENV PF 0.709
172 Tyson Chandler CHAR C 0.709
173 Rodrigue Beaubois DALL PG 0.707
174 Stephen Jackson GOLS SF 0.704
175 Shane Battier HOUS SF 0.703
176 Stephen Graham CHAR SF 0.702
177 Mike Conley MEMP PG 0.702
178 Earl Watson INDI PG 0.701
179 T.J. Ford INDI PG 0.700

GOOD ROLE PLAYERS / OFTEN GOOD 6TH MAN PLAYERS
180 Ramon Sessions MINN PG 0.699
181 Corey Maggette GOLS SF 0.699
182 Marcin Gortat ORLA PF 0.698
183 Terrence Williams NJRS SG 0.698
184 Jarrett Jack TORO PG 0.698
185 James Singleton WASH SF 0.696
186 JaVale McGee WASH C 0.694
187 Jose Juan Barea DALL PG 0.694
188 Marcus Thornton NORL SG 0.693
189 Daequan Cook MIAM SG 0.691
190 Jordan Farmar LALK PG 0.689
191 Kirk Hinrich CHIC PG 0.689
192 Carl Landry SACR PF 0.689
193 Shannon Brown LALK PG 0.687
194 Anthony Carter DENV PG 0.686
195 Jason Thompson SACR PF 0.686
196 Mike Dunleavy INDI SF 0.686
197 Robin Lopez PHNX C 0.684
198 Spencer Hawes SACR C 0.680
199 Rudy Fernandez PORT SG 0.678
200 Drew Gooden LACL PF 0.678
201 Steve Blake LACL PG 0.677
202 Bobby Simmons NJRS SF 0.676
203 Larry Hughes NWYR SG 0.675
204 Jerry Stackhouse MILW SF 0.675
205 Quentin Richardson MIAM SG 0.675
206 Rudy Gay MEMP SF 0.675
207 Darko Milicic MINN C 0.674
208 Drew Gooden DALL PF 0.674
209 Reggie Williams GOLS SF 0.673
210 Ronald Murray CHAR SG 0.671
211 Grant Hill PHNX SF 0.669
212 Nate Robinson BOST PG 0.668
213 Travis Outlaw LACL SF 0.668
214 Steve Blake PORT PG 0.667
215 Devin Harris NJRS PG 0.665
216 Antawn Jamison WASH PF 0.665
217 Danilo Gallinari NWYR SF 0.664
218 Wilson Chandler NWYR SF 0.664
219 Gerald Henderson CHAR SG 0.664
220 Tony Allen BOST SG 0.663
221 Kyrylo Fesenko UTAH C 0.662
222 Anthony Morrow GOLS SG 0.661
223 Jordan Hill HOUS PF 0.661
224 Jared Dudley PHNX SF 0.660
225 Daniel Gibson CLEV PG 0.660
226 Jeff Green OKLA PF 0.659
227 Josh McRoberts INDI PF 0.659
228 Anthony Johnson ORLA PG 0.658
229 J.J. Redick ORLA SG 0.658
230 Al Harrington NWYR PF 0.655
231 Luther Head INDI PG 0.654
232 Nicolas Batum PORT SF 0.653
233 Theo Ratliff CHAR C 0.650
234 Mario Chalmers MIAM PG 0.648
235 Brandon Bass ORLA PF 0.648
236 Kris Humphries NJRS PF 0.646
237 Chris Duhon NWYR PG 0.643
238 Nenad Krstic OKLA C 0.642
239 Kris Humphries DALL PF 0.642

SATISFACTORY ROLE PLAYERS / USUALLY DO NOT START
240 Rasho Nesterovic TORO C 0.637
241 Hedo Turkoglu TORO SF 0.635
242 Johan Petro DENV C 0.635
243 Randy Foye WASH PG 0.634
244 Jrue Holiday PHIL PG 0.633
245 Mickael Pietrus ORLA SG 0.631
246 Jared Jeffries NWYR PF 0.627
247 Leandro Barbosa PHNX SG 0.626
248 Joel Anthony MIAM C 0.624
249 O.J. Mayo MEMP SG 0.622
250 Chase Budinger HOUS SF 0.621
251 Roger Mason SANA SG 0.619
252 Caron Butler WASH SF 0.617
253 Peja Stojakovic NORL SF 0.615
254 Marreese Speights PHIL PF 0.613
255 Jamaal Tinsley MEMP PG 0.613
256 Bobby Brown NORL PG 0.611
257 Jonas Jerebko DETR SF 0.610
258 Omri Casspi SACR SF 0.609
259 Kurt Thomas MILW PF 0.608
260 Thaddeus Young PHIL SF 0.607
261 Brandon Rush INDI SG 0.606
262 Hasheem Thabeet MEMP C 0.605
263 Damien Wilkins MINN SG 0.601
264 Rodney Carney PHIL SF 0.601
265 Earl Boykins WASH PG 0.599
266 J.J. Hickson CLEV PF 0.599
267 Willie Green PHIL SG 0.598
268 Anthony Parker CLEV SG 0.596
269 Jamaal Magloire MIAM C 0.594
270 Wesley Matthews UTAH SG 0.592
271 Devean George GOLS SG 0.592
272 Richard Hamilton DETR SG 0.592
273 Kevin Martin SACR SG 0.591
274 Andrea Bargnani TORO C 0.591
275 Ryan Gomes MINN SF 0.589
276 Thabo Sefolosha OKLA SF 0.589
277 Rafer Alston NJRS PG 0.589
278 Tracy McGrady NWYR SG 0.588
279 Marco Belinelli TORO SG 0.587
280 Michael Finley BOST SF 0.585
281 Marcus Williams MEMP PG 0.583
282 Martell Webster PORT SG 0.583
283 Charlie Villanueva DETR PF 0.582

MARGINAL ROLE PLAYERS / RARELY START
284 Derek Fisher LALK PG 0.578
285 Jannero Pargo CHIC PG 0.577
286 Toney Douglas NWYR PG 0.577
287 Chris Hunter GOLS PF 0.576
288 Derrick Brown CHAR SF 0.575
289 Yi Jianlian NJRS PF 0.575
290 Nathan Jawai MINN PF 0.575
291 Ime Udoka SACR SG 0.574
292 Sergio Rodriguez NWYR PG 0.574
293 Arron Afflalo DENV SG 0.573
294 Kevin Martin HOUS SG 0.572
295 Hakim Warrick MILW PF 0.571
296 Al Thornton WASH SF 0.569
297 Will Bynum DETR PG 0.568
298 Jonny Flynn MINN PG 0.568
299 James Posey NORL SF 0.564
300 Mikki Moore GOLS C 0.561
301 Darius Songaila NORL PF 0.561
302 Jerryd Bayless PORT PG 0.556
303 Jon Brockman SACR PF 0.554
304 Sasha Vujacic LALK SG 0.554
305 Dante Cunningham PORT SF 0.551
306 Michael Redd MILW SG 0.551
307 Eric Gordon LACL SG 0.550
308 C.J. Miles UTAH SF 0.549
309 Al Thornton LACL SF 0.547
310 Julian Wright NORL SF 0.545
311 Jeff Teague ATLA PG 0.544
312 Marquis Daniels BOST SG 0.543
313 Dahntay Jones INDI SG 0.542
314 Chris Douglas-Roberts NJRS SG 0.541
315 Zaza Pachulia ATLA C 0.538
316 Etan Thomas OKLA C 0.538
317 Sonny Weems TORO SG 0.537
318 Devin Brown NORL SG 0.533
319 Jason Maxiell DETR PF 0.532
320 Bill Walker NWYR SG 0.532
321 Courtney Lee NJRS SG 0.528
322 James Jones MIAM SF 0.525
323 Donte Greene SACR SF 0.524
324 Kenny Thomas SACR PF 0.523
325 Wayne Ellington MINN SG 0.521
326 Juwan Howard PORT PF 0.520

POOR PLAYERS / SHOULD NEVER START
327 Charlie Bell MILW SG 0.518
328 Corey Brewer MINN SF 0.518
329 Hakim Warrick CHIC PF 0.514
330 DeAndre Jordan LACL C 0.512
331 Rasual Butler LACL SG 0.509
332 Glen Davis BOST PF 0.508
333 Sam Young MEMP SF 0.508
334 Austin Daye DETR SF 0.507
335 Ronald Murray CHIC SG 0.504
336 Vladimir Radmanovic GOLS SF 0.494
337 Solomon Jones INDI PF 0.493
338 Ben Gordon DETR SG 0.491
339 James Johnson CHIC PF 0.487
340 Rafer Alston MIAM PG 0.482
341 Eduardo Najera DALL PF 0.482
342 Chucky Atkins DETR PG 0.477
343 Earl Clark PHNX SF 0.474
344 Joey Graham DENV SF 0.473
345 Fabricio Oberto WASH C 0.468
346 Jason Smith PHIL PF 0.466
347 Andres Nocioni SACR SF 0.464
348 Jared Jeffries HOUS PF 0.462
349 Nick Young WASH SG 0.462
350 Maurice Evans ATLA SF 0.462
351 Keith Bogans SANA SG 0.462
352 Josh Howard DALL SF 0.460

VERY POOR PLAYERS
353 Eddie House NWYR SG 0.454
354 Joe Smith ATLA PF 0.453
355 Kwame Brown DETR C 0.452
356 Antoine Wright TORO SF 0.451
357 Darrell Arthur MEMP PF 0.443
358 Jarvis Hayes NJRS SF 0.438
359 Ricky Davis LACL SF 0.437
360 Mardy Collins LACL PG 0.436
361 Malik Hairston SANA SG 0.433
362 Jeff Pendergraph PORT PF 0.432
363 Jermaine Taylor HOUS SG 0.428
364 Chris Wilcox DETR C 0.417
365 DeMar DeRozan TORO SG 0.414
366 Jodie Meeks MILW SG 0.413
367 Quinton Ross DALL SF 0.406

EXTREMELY POOR PLAYERS
368 Morris Peterson NORL SG 0.394
369 Josh Powell LALK PF 0.386
370 Jason Kapono PHIL SG 0.383
371 Jawad Williams CLEV SF 0.369
372 DeMarre Carroll MEMP SF 0.357
373 Ryan Hollins MINN C 0.351
374 Steve Novak LACL SF 0.345
375 Trenton Hassell NJRS SF 0.342
376 Brian Scalabrine BOST C 0.329
377 Michael Finley SANA SF 0.321
378 Sasha Pavlovic MINN SG 0.314
379 DeShawn Stevenson WASH SG 0.287
380 Malik Allen DENV PF 0.282
381 DaJuan Summers DETR SF 0.266

SCALE FOR REGULAR SEASON REAL PLAYER RATINGS
Perfect for all Practical Purposes / Major Historic Super Star 1.100 and more
Historic Super Star 1.000 1.099
Super Star 0.900 0.999
A Star Player / A well above normal starter 0.820 0.899
Very Good Player / A solid starter 0.760 0.819
Major Role Player / Good enough to start 0.700 0.759
Good Role Player / Often a good 6th man 0.640 0.699
Satisfactory Role Player / Usually do not start 0.580 0.639
Marginal Role Player / Rarely start 0.520 0.579
Poor Player / Should never start 0.460 0.519
Very Poor Player 0.400 0.459
Extremely Poor Player .399 and less

AVERAGE RATINGS BY POSITION
Not all positions are created equal. These are the average ratings by position among all NBA players who play 300 minutes or more. There are very few small forwards and shooting guards who are superstars. Most (but definitely not all) superstars are players who can play point guard, power forward, or center.

Point Guard .750
Shooting Guard .640
Small Forward .640
Power Forward .720
Center .750
All Positions / All Players (NBA Overall Average) .700

PLAYOFF GRADE PLAYERS
Playoff Grade Players have ratings of .560 and higher. Players with ratings below .560 should not play in the playoffs unless the team is forced to play them so that they have two players at a position and/or so that the team has at least eight players playing in the playoffs and/or because the coach is absolutely certain the low rating player will play better in the playoffs than he did in the regular season.

REGULAR SEASON STARTING PLAYERS
All starters on all teams should have ratings of .575 and higher. If a team has no player at a postion with at least a .575 rating, then it is extremely deficient at that position due to injuries or due to management incompetence.

THE ALL IMPORTANT, AWARD WINNING REAL PLAYER RATINGS USER GUIDE
The above are a few hightlights from the User Guide for Real Player Ratings. For complete details regarding how the Real Player Ratings are designed, how and why they work, and how exactly you can use them, see the User Guide. The User Guide for Real Player Ratings is a necessary reference for anyone who wants to truly understand the value of, the validity of, and the ways you can use the Real Player Rating performance measures.

Also, you should become a regular visitor to Quest for the Ring if you want to get the full advantage of reading and using Real Player Ratings Series performance measures. The more you visit and check out ratings, the more quickly and easily you will be able to evaluate what you are seeing.

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